11.02.12

Contents

• GNU/Linux
  • Distributions
  • Devices/Embedded
• Free Software/Open Source
• Leftovers

GNU/Linux

• The Linux Setup – Vince Bardsley, Author

  I use LibreOffice for writing and spreadsheets and either Rhythmbox or XBMC to listen to music. I’m afraid I don’t do anything exotic.

• Linux FUD in College Education

  My fiance started a new class this week – an MIS (Management Information Systems) class. While we were having dinner tonight she brought up the fact there are some – lets say – colorful definitions of Linux in her wonderful “Experiencing MIS” text book.

• Desktop

  • Linux Preloaded: Coming Soon to a PC Near You

    It’s no secret that many here in the Linux blogosphere greeted Windows 8 with jubilation — not because they had any intention of using it, but because of the opportunity they think it represents for Linux to capture a greater proportion of mainstream users.

    That, indeed, was the hot topic du jour last week, but this week — now that the Win 8 dust has begun to settle — the conversation has shifted slightly. Specifically, bloggers are pondering the growing assortment of PCs that are coming with Linux already preloaded.

• Server

  • November 2012 Web Server Survey

    In the November 2012 survey we received responses from 625,329,303 sites, a modest increase of 4.8 million sites since last month’s survey.

• Kernel Space

  • Ext4 bug patched

  • The EXT4 Corruption Bug Is Fixed

  • There Might Be Another EXT4 Corruption Bug

  • Linux Kernel 3.6.5 Is Available for Download

    Greg Kroah-Hartman announced a few hours ago, October 31, the immediate availability for download of the fifth maintenance release for the stable Linux 3.6 kernel series.

  • Graphics Stack

    • Going Over The Graphics Execution Manager

      For those not yet familiar with GEM, the Graphics Execution Manager, that Intel’s open-source Linux graphics driver uses for in-kernel memory management, here’s a brief guide.

    • R600g Driver Patch That Can 4x The Frame-Rate

      Following yesterday’s article comparing the AMD Radeon Linux drivers on Ubuntu 12.10, Marek Olšák looked into some of the cases where the open-source Radeon Gallium3D driver was much slower than the proprietary Catalyst driver. Already with one patch that touches only two dozen lines of code, Marek was able to quadruple the open-source driver frame-rate for at least one game.

    • Radeon R600 Gallium3D Enables 2D Color Tiling

      For those pulling down the Git master of the xf86-video-ati X.Org graphics driver this week, 2D color tiling is finally enabled by default for Radeon HD 2000/3000/4000/5000/6000 series graphics cards, from R6xx through the “Cayman” GPUs.

• Applications

  • Instructionals/Technical

    • Auto Mounting Windows Shares in GNOME with Gigolo and gvfs-fuse

    • OStatic’s Latest Roundup of Free Tools for Great Graphics and Photos

    • Managing VMs with the Virtual Machine Manager

    • How to Install Ubuntu Linux on Your Google Nexus 7 Android Tablet

    • Linux Shell environment

    • Rackspace Cloud Files: Upload Files Using Secure FTP (SFTP) Client [ sftp-cloudfs ]

    • Ubuntu Server 12.10 Quantal Quetzal Installation Guide

    • Using PHP5-FPM With Apache2 On Ubuntu 12.10

  • Games

    • Diablo Meets Left 4 Dead in New Linux Game ‘FORCED’

    • Garys Mod may come to Linux!

• Desktop Environments

  • Choosing a Desktop: Mate vs Xfce

    Few desktop environments have benefited from the recent diversity of interfaces more than Mate and Xfce.

    A year ago, Mate hadn’t even reached general release. However, since then, it has been influential in making Linux Mint the distribution of choice among experienced users. Similarly, after years of being the third most popular desktop environment, Xfce has become one of the major alternatives.

    However, despite their similarities, which one is likely to appeal to you depends on what you are looking for in an interface.

  • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

    • Calligra 2.6 Beta Out

      KDE office and productivity suite Calligra has been updated to a new beta version. Among tons of bug fixes, this version also includes some new features and stability enhancements. As the 2.6 branch has been merged, no more new features will be added to this release, and only some major bugs will be fixed.

    • Beta of Calligra 2.6 released for testing

      Just two weeks after the alpha arrived, a beta for version 2.6 of the Calligra project’s set of open source productivity applications has been released with additional enhancements and new features that were not ready in time for the alpha. The beta is aimed at testers and includes general improvements to Open Document format handling, such as support for loading and saving 3D shapes and annotations; this should, the developers say, provide better interoperability with other office programs.

• Distributions

  • Linux Lite 1.0.0 Review: A good beginning!

    Advent of Ubuntu actually spurned up quite a few Linux distro releases, giving users plenty of options as well as some very interesting flavors to play with. For example, you think Unity is buggy, you can either try out gnome fallback or have all the goodness of Ubuntu and lightness of XFCE or LXDE in Xubuntu or Lubuntu. A cross with E17 and you have a Bodhi! And who can forget Linux Mint – right now the God of Linux!

  • Gentoo Linux Health Report — October 2012 Edition

  • Chakra 2012.09 – Chakra Chakra Chameleon

    Oh, it’s karma. Damn. Yes. Well, exactly one year after testing version 2011.09, I have decided to take Chakra for another round of testing. Please note I have purposefully made an ambiguous title so as not to disclose my satisfaction with the distribution, giving you only a sweet taste of bad humor.

    I was quite pleased with Chakra, so much in fact I added it to my annual best distro list as one of the top five candidates. While not everything was perfect, and the GTK integration on this otherwise pure KDE distro needed some polish, Chakra offered a fresh, unique and elegant experience. Let us whether we can get the same level of satisfaction this time around, and maybe even enhance it, because that’s the goal.

  • Ballnux Family

    • Big Bash Of Light weight Desktop Managers openSUSE 12.2

    • openSUSE 12.2 on a Samsung R510, almost perfect out of the box!

  • Red Hat Family

    • Red Hat Shows Long-Term Thinking in a Short-Term World

      Investors buy or sell stocks based on short-term time horizons. We measure earnings against expectations. We turn thumbs up-or-down on acquisitions and management changes. We follow the drama of the action like spectators at a sporting event.

    • Exclusive Interview: Jackie Yeaney Of Red Hat

      Yeaney: I’ve been asked that question several times over the years. First, let me say that I am incredibly grateful that my first real job out of college was serving our country. I learned more about leadership, trust, and respect than I could ever imagine. I also learned that one of my gifts in life was the ability to orchestrate lots of complex activities towards a vision. I had always thought I was going to get my Ph.D in electrical engineering, but being a captain in the US Air Force taught me that business may indeed be a far better path for my skills. So I chose MIT’s business school instead of its engineering school.

    • Fedora

      • Fedora 18 Isn’t Looking Too Good, Anaconda Problems

        The release of Fedora 18 has already been delayed five times and it’s still uncertain when this next Fedora Linux release will actually ship.

      • Anaconda is totally trashing the F18 schedule (was Re: f18: how to install into a LVM partitions (or RAID))

      • Fedora 17 Runs On Google Chromebook

        We had posted earlier about ChrUbuntu, a Ubuntu derivate specially designed to run on Chromebooks. Developer Christopher Hewitt has now successfully run Fedora 17 ARM with Xfce desktop on a $249 Chromebook. He as also posted instructions on Google+ for you to follow and try out.

      • Fedora 18 Alpha Released For ARM

        The Fedora ARM team has announced the release of Fedora 18 Alpha for ARM class CPUs. This announcement comes after the announcement of OpenSuse 12.2 release candidate for ARM. Fedora 18 is codenamed Spherical Cow. While there is a delay of over 5 weeks, the beta for x86 and x64 CPUs are not ready yet.

      • Fedora 18 Beta Delayed Again By Another Week
        

      • Fedora 18 Is Challenged By Yet Another Delay

      • Fedora 18 ARM Alpha Has Been Released

        A few minutes ago, November 1, the Fedora development team proudly announced the immediate availability for download of the first Alpha version of the upcoming Fedora 18 operating system for the ARM architecture.

  • Debian Family

    • Derivatives

      • Canonical/Ubuntu

        • Preparing UDS Proceedings

        • Ubuntu Software Development Kit Announced

          An important item discussed in Copenhagen this Monday, regarding app development, was the emergence of an Ubuntu SDK at some point in the not too distant future.

        • A review of Ubuntu Made Easy

        • Ubuntu 13.04 To Target The Linux 3.8 Kernel

          Right now it’s looking like the Linux 3.8 kernel will be used for Ubuntu 13.04 since it will be released likely in mid-March, just one month ahead of the 13.04 release. With Ubuntu 13.04 not being a Long Term Support cycle, this is what the Ubuntu kernel developers believe will be their best bet. In terms of other fundamental kernel changes or new flavors, there aren’t likely to be any except for PowerPC possibly coming back to Ubuntu.

        • Ubuntu 13.04 Will Have Linux Kernel 3.8

        • Ubuntu 13.04: Alpha Releases Dropped, Only One Beta Milestone

        • Ubuntu: No more alphas, just one beta

          At the Ubuntu Development Summit (UDS-R) in Copenhagen, the Ubuntu community has decided plans to create a more streamlined, continuous development for future versions of Ubuntu Linux – but this will see the end of all alpha releases and only one beta release. The current development summit is discussing plans for the development of Ubuntu 13.04, aka “Raring Ringtail”.

        • UBUNTU.AUDIOCA.ST: Unbelievably Stupid

          Now, don’t let the post title fool you. I have nothing really bad to say about this podcast. I listen to plenty of stupid podcasts regularly. 40-Year Old Boy and Jordan Jesse Go come to mind here. But this one takes the cake. Why? Because it has nearly nothing to do with Ubuntu… Instead it just seems to be like what it might be to hang out with a handful of dudes that simply enjoy Ubuntu. Actually, it’s more like a handful of Canadian dudes with vivid imaginations talking about Ubuntu. Just imagine if you will The Kids In The Hall crashing a C64 convention. Yeah, I think that pretty much sums things up.

        • Amazon in Ubuntu upsets the Electronic Frontier Foundation

        • It’s Official: Ubuntu 13.04 Will Drop Alpha Releases

        • Ubuntu 13.04 Aims For 64-bit ARM Support (AArch64)

          With Ubuntu 13.04 there will likely be an AArch64 (64-bit ARM) spin of the popular Linux distribution.

          Aside from the Ubuntu 13.04 talk, on a similar note were discussions about an Ubuntu 13.04 AArch64 spin / AArch64 package archive for this next-generation ARM architecture.

        • Ubuntu Wants More Games Running On OpenGL ES

          Now that Ubuntu’s been ported to the Google Nexus 7 and there’s other interesting Ubuntu work going into the tablet/mobile-space, developers want more open-source games ported to using OpenGL ES rather than the full OpenGL stack.

        • EFF urges Canonical to make Ubuntu 12.10 Amazon ads optional

        • Privacy group damns Ubuntu’s Amazon search marriage

          Privacy activists have taken Canonical to task for exposing users’ web searches and searches of their local hard drives to sites such as Amazon, Facebook and the BBC.

        • The Electronic Frontier Foundation Has Numerous Issues with Ubuntu 12.10′s Dash Search

        • EFF Raises Questions on Privacy Leaks in Ubuntu

        • Ubuntu summit raises software development kit for OS

        • Actions from Ubuntu UDS-R

        • Mark Shuttleworth To Host A Ask Me Anything Session In Reddit, Get Your Questions Ready

          While the date hasnt been announced yet, you can get your questions ready, and let them answered by Mark Shuttleworth himself. Mark Shuttleworth earlier has done several sessions of question answer round, mostly about, Ubuntu, Canonical and free software culture. However, in this session, you can “Ask him anything.”

        • Hybrid Graphics In Ubuntu Are Still Lackluster

          Notebooks with “hybrid graphics” — two GPUs that come down to a low-power integrated graphics processor and a high-performance discrete graphics processor with being able to dynamically switch between GPUs based upon performance/power needs — has long been a problem for Linux. It wasn’t until recently that the Linux stack has had rudimentary hybrid graphics support via PRIME / DRI2 offloading, but still it doesn’t handle the dynamic power management at the moment, there isn’t any easy-to-use configuration interface, and all bugs have yet to be ironed out.

        • Handling Command Submission For The Intel DRM Driver

          If you liked yesterday’s post by Daniel Vetter of Intel’s Open-Source Technology Center that covered going over the Graphics Execution Manager for memory management, today he’s around with a second part that details command submission handling for the Intel open-source Linux driver.

        • Ubuntu Still Unsure On Using XZ Packages

          While Fedora has been using XZ-compressed packages for their RPMs for a while now with having a greater compression ratio than Gzip, Ubuntu developers remain unsure of switching to using XZ compression for the Ubuntu 13.04 release.

        • X.Org, Wayland Plans For Ubuntu 13.04 Are Drawn

        • Ubuntu Desires Lower Audio Latency For Gaming

          At the Ubuntu Developer Summit in Copenhagen today, developers discussed audio latency for gaming on the premise that “audio latency is relatively high on Linux and we need to be competitive with other platforms.”

        • Flavours and Variants

          • Linux distro spotlight: Fuduntu

            It’s not unusual for Linux distributions to have somewhat offbeat names — Ubuntu (named after an Africa-originated philosophy), Red Hat (the creator of the original distro, Marc Ewing, had a red lacrosse hat given to him by his grandfather), and the wonderful CrunchBang Linux (named after the characters usually used at the start of a script — #!). In the case of Fuduntu, the origins of the name are quite simple: It’s a combination of Unbuntu and Fedora, the Red Hat-sponsored Linux distribution.

          • Team Peppermint: We Want You!

            Hello from Peppermint headquarters in western North Carolina! As a project, Peppermint continues to grow and grow, and we are at the tipping point where we could use some immediate assistance. Are you willing to bring your talents and skill set to an established and trusted open source project? Do you get as fired up about Linux based systems as we do? Would you like to join Team Peppermint? If you’re ready to join our ranks, we are about to dive into development of Peppermint Four which is slated for release in June 2013. Please examine the following team spots we are looking to fill.

• Devices/Embedded

  • Wal-Mart to start selling Boxee TV set-top box

  • Phones

    • Android

      • 25 Free Android Apps to Get You Started

      • Google adds voice assistant to Search app to take on Siri

      • $99 Game Console Ouya To Ship With Android Jelly Bean

        The developers are also planning to release a SDK by the end of this year so that game developers can get started with their development. Since Ouya comes with only a console with a few keys, game devs will need to modify existing Android games so that it becomes compatible with Ouya.

      • OUYA will launch will Android 4.2

      • Lenovo IdeaPad S2110 screenshot tour

        This screenshot tour was created in preparation for DeviceGuru’s upcoming in-depth review of Lenovo’s IdeaPad 2110 10-inch Android tablet. The comprehensive tour includes over 500 images showcasing numerous aspects of the tablet’s Android 4.0-based user interface, home screens, customization, and apps.

      • Official render of Xperia Odin surfaces, looks like previous leak

        Sony’s alleged next flagship droid has leaked anew this time with an official photo. The Sony Xperia C650X Odin official photo is a render, which looks pretty close to the Sony Ericsson Xperia X2 and slightly resembles a Motorola RAZR with its beveled edges and use of metal in the frame.

  • Sub-notebooks/Tablets

    • Asustek: Nexus 7 Sales Approaching 1 million a Month

      Sales of Google Inc. ’s Nexus 7, made by Taiwan’s Asustek Computer Inc. , are closing in on 1 million units a month, the Taiwanese maker revealed.

      The 7-inch tablet has created a big buzz this year with its low starting price of US$199, but both Google and Asustek have been cagey about revealing actual sales figures.

    • Archos intros new 8-inch Android tablet, 80 Cobalt

    • Ethiopian kids hack OLPCs in 5 months with zero instruction

      What happens if you give a thousand Motorola Zoom tablet PCs to Ethiopian kids who have never even seen a printed word? Within five months, they’ll start teaching themselves English while circumventing the security on your OS to customize settings and activate disabled hardware. Whoa.

Free Software/Open Source

• FOSS Disaster Relief Projects Can Help in the Wake of Hurricane Sandy

  People in several states in the Eastern United States are still reeling from the effects of Hurricane Sandy, and there are many kinds of disaster relief efforts going on. At the same time, many event organizers are working overtime to ensure that some normalcy is preserved. As evidenced in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, technology–including open source technology–can help organize disaster relief efforts and coordinate people. Here are just a few examples of tools that can make a difference.

• Google launches open source Voter Information Tool in advance of the 2012 US presidential election

• Twitter Bootstrap

  One framework in particular has taken the world of Web development by storm during the past year: Twitter Bootstrap. Bootstrap first was released in summer 2011, and it was written by Mark Otto and Jacob Thornton, both of whom work at Twitter. Bootstrap, which was released under an open-source license on GitHub, has become an almost-overnight sensation. Indeed, it is currently the most-watched open-source project on GitHub, surpassing even Ruby on Rails.

• Open source misconceptions fading

  South Africa may be up to five years behind the rest of the world in terms of vendor-supported open source software adoption, but the old misconceptions are falling away and adoption is picking up.

  This is according to Jan-Jan van der Vyver, MD of Linux Warehouse, who says certain sectors are leading the way in terms of increasing adoption, such as telecommunications and certain technologically advanced banks, such as FNB. The public sector, which has long had an open source policy, has been slow in meeting its own adoption targets, but is now taking steps to remedy this.

• Google Teen Coding Contest Launches Nov. 26

• Events

  • Announcing the LinuxCon Europe VIP Gift Winners, Free Live Streaming of Event

• Web Browsers

  • Proprietary Browser vs. Open Source Browser [Market Share Analysis]

• SaaS

  • HP Reiterates Dedication to the Open Cloud

    It’s interesting to note that amidst all the hullaballoo about OpenStack and open source cloud computing, Amazon Web Services remains the 800-pound gorilla in the cloud, and even less talked about platforms such as the commercial arm of Citrix’s CloudStack strategy have surprisingly strong user bases. The open source cloud has enormous promise, but many people still need to be convinced that necessary support offerings and other aspects of reliable infrastructure are in place. Recently, HP’s Zorawar ‘Biri’ Singh, SVP Converged Cloud and HP Cloud Services, spoke with InternetNews on these topics and had interesting things to say. Above all, he expressed commitment to open source in the cloud.

• Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

  • Is LibreOffice Exaggerating User Data?

  • Searching for infrastructure sponsors

  • The Document Foundation Releases LibreOffice 3.6.3

  • The Document Foundation announces LibreOffice 3.6.3

  • LibreOffice Pushes Back, Releases 3.6.3

• Semi-Open Source

  • Digium Announces Release of Asterisk 11 Open Source Communications Software

    Digium, Inc., the Asterisk Company, unveiled Asterisk 11 at its annual AstriCon users’ conference meeting, a new release that features multiple contributions from the Asterisk developer community. Asterisk 11 includes a number of new features, including support for WebRTC over SIP and native integration with Digium’s line of VoIP telephones. It is also a new Long Term Support (LTS) version of Asterisk, the world’s most widely adopted open source communications engine.

• BSD

  • OpenBSD 5.2 released

• FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

  • GNUCash Now Available From Google Play Store

• Public Services/Government

  • 2001 The European Parliament wants Open Source for security reasons

  • Open Source Outlook in UK Government still Cloudy?

• Openness/Sharing

  • Food for thought: Consumer collaboration on car design

  • How Crowdsourcing Can Solve Otherwise Intractable Real-World Problems

    Although crowdsourcing is all the rage at the moment, there has to be a worry that this is just the latest fad in the world of technology, and will soon follow portals and the blink tag into justified oblivion. Occasionally, though, an application of crowdsourcing appears that seems to address a real problem in a way that would be otherwise intractable.

Leftovers

• 4 millions Windows 8 upgrades, that’s not much!

• Microsoft’s New Cloud and Mobile Approach Uses Same Old Lock-in Strategy

• Think cloud computing saved you from Sandy? Think again.

  It makes little sense for any Internet business to be dependent on a single data center. With server virtualization it is possible to put images of your server here and there to cover almost any failover problem. Not just multiple servers but multiple servers on multiple backbones in multiple cities supported by multiple power companies and backed by multiple generators. We do that even here at I, Cringely and we’re known to be idiots.

• Abacus adds up to number joy in Japan

• FTC Declares Rachel From Cardholder Services ‘Enemy Number 1′; Files Complaints Against Five Scammy Robocollers

• Health/Nutrition

  • OPINION: Who wins with Medicare Advantage?

    The big five health insurance companies have begun reporting their third quarter 2012 earnings and so far, they are pleasing their shareholders with profits that are better than Wall Street expected, in large part because they are doing especially well in one key area: Medicare.

    [...]

    A Romney-Ryan victory likely would be the equivalent of winning the lottery for the big institutional investors that own the majority of health insurance company stock. Citigroup analyst Carl McDonald predicts that should Romney win and the GOP take the Senate, the value of health insurers’ shares would rise 10 to 20 percent.

  • Is the Junk Food Industry Buying the WHO?

    The US Food and Drug Administration is notorious for bowing to food-industry interests at the expense of public health. Consider the case of trans fats—whose damaging effects the FDA ignored for decades under industry pressure before finally taking action in 2006, a story I told here. Then there’s the barrage of added sweeteners that have entered the US diet over the last two decades, while the FDA whistled. This week, Cristin Kearns Couzens and Gary Taubes, who has been writing hard-hitting pieces on the dangers of excess sweetener consumption for a while, have a blockbuster Mother Jones story documenting how the FDA rolled over for the food industry on added sweeteners.

• Security

  • What Do Sandy & Pearl Harbor Have In Common? Politicians Exploit Both To Push Cybersecurity Agendas

  • National cybersecurity effort launched to strengthen software infrastructure

    “Open-source software, developed by multiple programmers in collaborative environments, underpins much of the information technology we rely on every day-from communication networks to the databases that manage our personal records,” says Livny. “By its very nature, open-source software allows for rapid progress. Yet, the collaborative environments that facilitate open-source innovation have offered limited access to tools and resources for continuous cybersecurity assurance.”

• Environment/Energy/Wildlife

  • The Battle Against Big Energy’s Rush to Ruin Our Planet

    The energy industry tries to sell us ‘ethical oil’, ‘clean coal’ and ‘natural gas’, but this extreme weather is mobilising people to act

• Finance

  • Why are there no famous financial whistleblowers in this crisis?

    This column discusses one of the more subtle issues raised by the Department of Justice’s (DOJ’s) civil fraud action against Bank of America (B of A). The issue was so subtle that of the three articles about the lawsuit that I choose to review the night after the suit was filed, only the NYT article mentioned one of the most important aspects of the suit – the key role that the whistleblower played in making the action possible. The AP and the WSJ articles ignored the fact.

    The lawsuit threatens to impose steep fines on the bank. The Justice Department filed the case under the False Claims Act, which could provide for triple the damages suffered by Fannie and Freddie, a penalty that could reach more than $3 billion.

    The act also provides an avenue for a Countrywide whistle-blower, Edward J. O’Donnell, to cash in. Under the act, the government can piggyback on accusations he filed in a lawsuit that was kept under seal until now.

    Mr. O’Donnell, who lives in Pennsylvania, was an executive vice president for Countrywide before leaving the company in 2009. The government’s case in part hinges on the credibility of his claims.

  • Sharp admits ‘material doubt’ on survival

  • Welfare cuts will lead to shortfall in affordable homes

    Decrease in government spending set to leave low income families with a stark choice: buy less food or move out

  • Barclays faces record £290m penalty

• PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

  • Romney Distorts His Record As Governor

• Censorship

  • Getting the facts straight in the parental controls debate

    It’s useful to note that Westminster Hall debates aren’t particularly formal interventions or statements of the Government’s policy. They are secured by MPs who want to discuss something important to them, and can indicate MPs feelings and signal to the Government what Parliamenarians’ priorities might be.

    But even though it’s just a Westminster Hall debate, it seemed important to note that I spotted Claire Perry MP citing a statistic that I haven’t seen before, and which got my spidey senses tingling. She suggests that the number of parents installing network filters at home has dropped ten percent over the past three years, standing now at 39%.

  • Syria Using US Gear to Block Web

    A U.S. company that makes Internet-blocking gear acknowledges that Syria has been using at least 13 of its devices to censor Web activity there—an admission that comes as the Syrian government cracks down on its citizens and silences their online activities.

  • Journalist Attempts To Silence Criticism Of Her Ethics By Brandishing The Club Of UK Defamation Laws

    Defamation is only supposed to apply to cases where there’s a factually false statement made about someone. It shouldn’t apply to cases where the facts are accurate, or the statements are opinions. But while the US’s defamation laws generally deal pretty well with this, it’s not as clear elsewhere. The UK, unfortunately, is somewhat famous for its bad defamation laws, where the burden is generally on the accused to prove they didn’t defame someone — which can be an expensive process. Over the past week or so, video gaming journalists and industry watchers have been dealing with a bit of controversy. Eurogamer columnist Rab Florence wrote a column questioning the close relationship between some gaming journalists and the companies they cover, where it sometimes seems like the journalists are pitch people, rather than objective journalists. This is not a new concern, especially in video game journalism, where such accusations tend to show up pretty regularly (sometimes more accurately than others).

  • Lost Humanity 18: A Table of Doritos

• Privacy

  • The Kremlin’s New Internet Surveillance Plan Goes Live Today

  • CJOnline ordered to release poster’s information

    A Shawnee County District Court judge has ordered The Topeka Capital-Journal to relinquish identifying information of a CJOnline.com commenter claiming to be a juror in a high-profile murder trial.

    District Judge Steven Ebberts on Friday denied the newspaper’s request to quash the district attorney’s subpoena for the information. As a result, CJOnline will have to release the poster’s name, address and Internet Protocol address to the district attorney.

• Civil Rights

  • Draft Communications Bill: May says web monitoring will save lives

    Under draft plans, service providers will have to store details of all internet use in the UK for a year.

  • Free/open source programmer and Creative Commons activist Bassel Khartabil faces torture in notorious Syrian prison

    Bassel Khartabil, a Palestinian free/open source developer and Creative Commons activist, has been in prison in Syria since June, and his colleagues around the world have been agitating for his release

  • Torture Cases Surge in Mexico Under Calderon, Rights Groups Say

• Intellectual Monopolies

  • How GMO-free labelling of food products can contribute to increase GMO-free supplies for animal feed

  • Stupid Lawyer Tricks (And How the PTO Could Help Stop Them)

  • Trademarks

    • Rosetta Stone Agrees to Drop Google Trademark Suit

      Rosetta Stone Inc. (RST), a maker of language-learning software, agreed to drop a lawsuit it brought against Google Inc. (GOOG) for selling its trademarks to other companies for search-engine advertising.

      The companies agreed that all claims in the infringement case will be dismissed, according to a filing today in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia. No terms were given with the stipulation of voluntary dismissal. Rosetta Stone had claimed the keywords were being sold to competitors and counterfeiters.

  • Copyrights

    • MoviePass Offers ‘Unlimited’ Movie Tickets For $29.99 A Month — But Can It Ever Hope To Turn A Profit?

    • The Proof That Movies Won’t Get Made Any More Is That… More Movies Are Being Made Today

      The Hollywood Reporter recently had an article which is pretty much all doom and gloom about the movie industry, based on a conference at USC about the “Entertainment Law and Business.” Seeing as it’s an LA event, it’s not surprising that much of the story took the typical Hollywood line about how terrible things are these days. But what’s amazing is that it seems to treat the success stories as if they’re failures. It quotes YouTube star Sam Tsui, who points out that “you can’t become complacent as a content creator — you need to do new, exciting stuff” and turns that into the complaint that artists have to spend all their time running “to keep in the same place.” Most of us call that “a job.”

    • The Internet Didn’t ‘Kill’ Carly Rae Jepsen’s Career

      Jepsen and her two bandmates recognized it was best to strike when the iron was still tepid and ventured into the studio with enough co-producers and songwriters to choke a “Tribute to Lou Perlman” compilation. Jepsen’s debut album was released and promptly fell off the public radar, failing to surpass 100,000 sales. This sort of situation is hardly unique. Plenty of big hits have been followed by a loud sucking noise as fans rush off to examine the Next Big Thing, creating a temporary vacuum in their wake.

    • U.S. Accuses Megaupload User of Storing Pirated Music

      By seizing the servers of Megaupload, the U.S. Government also confiscated the personal belongings of many innocent users. One entrepreneur has asked the court to return his data but this request is meeting resistance from the authorities. The U.S. Government points out that the Megaupload user in question may not technically be the owner of his uploaded files. In addition they accuse him of hosting pirated copies of popular music.

    • Justice Department Continues Handwaving To Avoid Facing Up To Its Questionable Behavior In Taking Down Megaupload

    • John Mellencamp: Thou Shalt Not Permit The Internet To Derail Our Gravy Train

      We’ve written about John Mellencamp’s anti-internet rants before, but this latest one doesn’t just take the cake, it takes the whole bakery and turns it into a reality show on the Learning Channel, but with more melodrama and an even looser definition of learning.